Sunday, May 22, 2011

Israel's right to defend itself? And Palistine's right to do the same?

US president Obama has always spoken of Israel's right to defend itself. In fact, after announcing that the basis for a two states solution is the 1967 borders, he has gone a step further by saying that the US will make sure that Israel has the military edge in the Mid East. On the other hand, whilst continuing arming Israel to the teeth, he is calling on the Palestinians [Palestinian Authority and of course Hamas]to lay down arms and trust Israel's benevolence and good will, in the pursuit of a treaty of peace leading to a Palestinian state.The American president speak with a forked tongue: how can you say one state has the right to defend itself, whereas another doesn't? The simple answer is: you cannot. Yet, saying this, has stopped the US from preaching pie in the sky simplistic coneptualisation clashes with a hard nosed realism.What is missing in the conversation is looking at Zionist ideology which propels Israel's penchant for war. Israel's right wing swing, particularly the Netenyahu Likud led government, has mightily embraced Revisionist Zionism which sees a 'Greater Israel', absorbing the Palestinian West Bank, now 43 years under Zionist occupation and illegal theft of Palestinian land for Jewish settlers. Netenyahu & co. cavalierly speak of that land as 'Samaria and Judea', an irredentist claim based on hoary biblical claims. [The 'milder' form of Zionism shares the same goals but does not put them into words. Remember Golda Meir's definition of a Palestinian people: 'there is no such thing as Palestinians'. Denial of the right of Palestinians to a state of their own runs like a red thread from Ben Gourian to Shimon Peres. The brighter face of 'this' Zionism will engage in discussions that have one and one object in mind: to emasculate any claim to a Palestinian state.]So, when Netenyahu says 1967 borders are not a basis for negotiations is simply his recognition of Israeli policy of dismantling the 1993 Oslo Accords and aggressively stealing Arab land and settling Jews on Palestinian lands, of crisscrowwing the West Bank in a planned way by pushing Palestinians into islands of poorer land, which would shape any Palestiniant 'state' into unconnected dots, incapable of sustaining itself but existing only through Israeli control. [Thus, the comparison with apartheid South Africa's 'bantustan' takes on an importance.]Israel's wars, most preemptive, against Arab neighbours of theirs and Palestinians, have been initiated by Israel. Today, despite Obama's revving up military aid, which the US ratepayer is footing the bill, is making Israel sweat and increase its 'extistential' fear of isolation and at their mercy. What a mockery of the truth on the ground! Consider Israel's wars against Lebanon and the collective punishment of Gaza in Cast Lead and incidents of piracy and murder on the high sea exemplified by the 'Mavi Mamara', will resort to military actions. The probability of Israeli initiated war like behaviour spikes even higher: the fear that the UN will in September confer 'de jure' and 'de facto' recognition, in spite of an American veto in the Security Council, but overridden in the General Assembly.Netenyahu & co. feel their back to the wall and as such, will lash out in preemptive strikes and the peace process be damned!And we have to wonder why Palestinians are called on by the US president to lie down with a wounded lion? Not only is Obama's pretty logic twisted like a pretzel, it is a professorily escape into romanticism.